Deconstructing the path to truth
Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, “Local Media in a Postmodern World.” Deconstructing the path to truth We’re hearing lots today about the laziness and weakness of what Jay Rosen calls...
View ArticlePost-Industrial Journalism
The only thing anybody really knows about the future of journalism is that there will be one. As Lisa Williams famously noted a few years ago, “Journalism will survive the death of its institutions.”...
View ArticleScrambling in Boston: Welcome to the 21st Century
I’ve been struck by many things in observing the professional observers deal with the amateurs in the new world of networked journalism today in Boston. I’ve got to say that none of this surprises me,...
View ArticleESSAY: The Net Redefines “Local”
Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, “Local Media in a Postmodern World:” The Net Redefines “Local” New research by Pew reveals insight about TV News and the difference between small...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Deconstructing Pirates
Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World. This one examines closely the postmodern practice of historical deconstruction and why it’s so important for us...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Emergent Movement’s big failure
Let us forever remember the words of Henry Adams, Chaos is the way of nature, but order is the dream of man. As I’ve written over the last fifteen years, another word for chaos is change. Change is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Christian church and postmodernism
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a topic I will be exploring much further in the time ahead. Many years ago, I was speaking to executives of a media company in Florida about my views of media and culture. I’ve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It’s not Donald Trump; it’s his followers!
One of the main themes of my new book, How Jesus Joined the GOP, is that the biggest threat in the current political debate is not those who lead but the angry mob that follows. Here’s an excerpt from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The devil and the ego
Courtesy Slideshare.net We talk a lot about ego in AA, for the ego is the real enemy of any addict. Alcohol is but a symptom of our disease, the book says. The real problem with alcoholism is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The horizontal church
Let’s get one thing absolutely straight about institutions, postmodernity, and the Great Horizontal, a.k.a. the age of participation: hierarchies are inefficient, self-centered, and therefore,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our neverending civil war
Let’s look at the Donald Trump phenomenon through a slightly different lens, shall we? I’ve often written in describing postmodernism that horizontal connectivity makes impossible many axioms of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A postmodern view of today’s political chaos
We come to know our own minds only by explaining ourselves to others. Christopher Lasch My Nashville blogger friend Rex Hammock reminded me this week of a wonderful quote from President John F. Kennedy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
1968 just called, wants its mood back
Puppet masters are at work online As Donald Trump continues his effort to seize the law and order position in the wake of continuing violence on America’s streets (“Make America Safe Again”), the whole...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The coming war on (social media) incitement
This is a warning for this generation and the one to come: There is no more dangerous claim we face as a free people today than the hierarchical, authoritarian charge of incitement. This is such an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Of Spectators and Participants
In response to many questions years ago about the nature of postmodernism as a cultural era, I described it as the “Age of Participation,” for technology was making it possible for us to participate in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Journalism’s “post-truth” era
There has been much public weeping and gnashing of teeth by professional journalism observers in the wake of the industry’s (is it an industry or a trade?) loss in November with the election of Donald...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Understanding “Alternative Facts”
Here’s a little perspective on the matter before us: Marketers have been lying to us since the days of the snake oil salesman. I’ve told the story before of the TV commercial I witnessed many years ago...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using the Bible to justify selfishness
Luke 10:25-37 (NIV) The Parable of the Good Samaritan 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Just the facts
Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday The principal assumption of modernity – the human era governed by logic and reason – is that there is an attainable objectivity when it comes to facts, even when applied to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
War Propaganda as “Weaponized Narrative”
Weaponized Narrative Is the New Battlespace is a fascinating and highly perceptive take on the use of manipulating narrative to impact culture. The idea is that individuals, institutions, and nations...
View Article